28 October 2017

Posted by
Mike Brubaker

It's a worry all right.Seems like I'm forgetting somethin'.I think I got my music in order.My baton is polishedand so's my shoes long as I don't step into nothin'.I wish mama hadn't fussed with these pants of Uncle Joe's.They feel kind of scratchy.

It's a fine day and looks like we got a good turnout.That boy looks a bit skittish but then it's his first time leading at the front.He'll be okay once we get under way.I remember my first parade back before the war.Got so turned about I went left down Main while the band went right.Startled Mr. Nixon's horse with my baton and nearly got run over.

Say Henry, when you think they's gonna start playing?It sure took 'em long enough to get lined up.Hold on, is that fellow up there on the roofgonna take our picture?

Now the first tune up is the Thundererand I'm playing the second part. I think.Then we flip to the Yankee Girl,then the Marceline, then when we stopVictor plays his Euphonium solo,then we do that new song, and then...?Guess I'll just follow Mr. Charles.

Oh, Betsy don't they look swell? Did you ever see such shiny instruments?Isn't that your cousin over there?He plays the clarionet don't he?I don't know if I can see James and Will.What do you suppose they're late again?

You fellas remember two years ago?Rained the night before and turned Main Street into a frog pond.I was soaked through from my hat to my socks.My drum head was so limpit sounded like I was beating on an ol' rug.

The parade was about to start. The photographer steadied his camera and clicked the shutter.

BAND REUNIONALBANY, WIS

AUG. 28, 1908

Albany is a village in Green County, Wisconsin. It's population in 2010 was a touch over 1,000 and a century earlier in 1910 it could boast of 669 citizens. Like many small towns in America at this time Albany had a town band. At one time it had two bands and an orchestra. Music was part of every civic activity. Bands accompanied fairs, dances, games, and often produced their own special concerts to raise money for new instruments or uniforms..

A few days later.the Albany Band Reunion got a mention in the Janesville Daily Gazette.

Janesville WI Daily Gazette
2 September 1908

Fully three thousand people attended the band reunion here last Friday. Six bands were present and rendered some fine music. J. Jacob Figl of New Glarus was again chosen president, Henry Schwartz of Brodhead was elected vice president, and E. E. Atherton of Albany was elected secretary. The next reunion will be held at Brodhead. A ball game was played between Footville and Monroe in which Monroe was defeated.

The band is in formation in front of the G. W. Roberts & Son Drugstore which also sold paint, glass,school books, and stationary. George W. Roberts was a physician and with his son ran a business that dealt in a wide variety of useful household products. I suspect the younger Roberts might have been the photographer too, as both pharmaceuticals and photography required a knowledge of chemistry, and a drugstore would be a typical place to sell photo postcards.

In 1908 a small town like Albany probably did not have many large stores, so I decided to see if I could find it using Google Street View. The town is divided by the Sugar River and the east and west side are linked by a single main street. The business district on the east side is on Water St. parallel to the river, and on its corner with Main St. is the remains of G. W. Roberts & Son Drugstore. The building has been remuddled over the decades since 1908 but if you look close three brickwork arches survive as does the door step block. The second floor windows also match in number and position.

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Hidden among the 78 musicians of the Albany Band Reunionis one musician who stands out.Towards the center behind the drum rankis an African-American cornet player.

He might be a member of the band from Monroe, or Footville, or New Glarus, or Brodhead, or even Albany. All the towns were within 15-20 miles from each other,so it's likely that all the bandsmen knew each other.Most were farmers, tradesmen, mechanics, or students in their daily occupation and every so oftengathered together to play band music.The inclusion of this man in the photo is a rare example of a black musician playing with white musiciansduring an era when segregation was the rule, even in a northern state like Wisconsin.

In an old Wisconsin state digestI found a brief mention of Albany's Saxhorn Band which served in a Wisconsin regiment of the Union Army in 1863.As this was only 45 years later, it seems probable that in Albany there was still a strong sentimentof support for the Union and a condemnation of slavery.But how this black musician came to be in Wisconsinis a question whose answer will have to remain an enigma.

20 October 2017

Posted by
Mike Brubaker

A micro story contrived from two postcards.

It's the great mystery. Who will it be? When will you meet? Where will it happen? Questions endlessly replayed but never answered. You just don't know. So you dream. You hope. You go back to practicing your violin. Scales are so boring.You think you know what it will feel like. It will be a kind of kinship in sound. An affinity for music that mirror's your own sensibility, your passion, even your very breath. Or maybe just in tune. With most of the right rhythms. So you wait. There's no worry. Time passes slowly. Perhaps in a couple of months. Maybe a few years. Surely not forever?Then one day you notice something. There's a hint of shy rapport from a name and face you've known for a while, yet somehow never sensed before. A new familiarity that's comfortable and fun. The violins dance. The upbows and downbows cavort across the strings. Cellos and violas blend together and pick up the tune. The orchestra sings with wonderful fervor. Notes fit together like dovetails on a wooden box.

So one day, February 23, 1912 to be exact, you take a chance. A postcard photo with just a simple wish. “Many happy returns of the day. Jerrie.” That's wouldn't seem too forward, too presumptive, would it?

And quickly, without effort, a tiny spark kindles a glow that builds from flicker to flame. Your mystery dissolves in the bright light of companionship. The Who becomes a him. The When flips tense from future to past. And the Where turns out to be closer than you'd ever imagine.

Unlocking the mystery brings a treasure. Another photo card and a handsome one too, with an unmistakable inscription. “To the Harmony Girlie - From the Melody Boy - Q_ Young”So that's how it happens. The perfect stand partner doesn't just appear. They've always been there. The strangeness is that you can't
remember if there ever was a before. It's as if the two were always one. Harmony and melody intertwined. As it was always meant to be.

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These two violinists, girl and boy, to my knowledge never actually met.

But they could have.

The only clues to their identityare what you see here.So now, sweethearts or not, my imagined postcard romance will have them play as stand partners forever.

13 October 2017

Posted by
Mike Brubaker

I think it's the tilt of her headthat makes the photo's composition so charming.Her name is Gret'l Bode,age 8, maybe 10,and she sits beside her instrument, a xylophoneatop a beautifully carved end table.Her second instrument, a violin,which appears to have frets like a guitar,rests on the floor between the table legs.She's dressed in a dirndl frock,a traditional Tyrolean folk costume.

Gret'l is one of the many Xylophon Kinderwho were popular child entertainers in Germany and Austriaat the beginning of the 20th century.The xylophone children in Part 1 weredated around 1913-1915 by postmarks on the cards.Gret'l Bode's was never mailed but based on the cheap paperit probably dates to the war years 1914-1918.

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Her instrument was called a Xylophon,but the arrangement of the tuned wooden barsis very different from the modern xylophone and marimbawhich follow a standard keyboard system with bass notes on the left and treble on the right.With this percussion instrument the bars are turned 90° and the bass notes are closest to the player with the treble farthest away.This detail shows how the bars are closely woven together.In the background are a set of handbells.They belong to the Geschwister Stehlei.e. the Stehle sister and brother.

The two Stehle children are about age 8 and 12 and they hold little mallets poised above two xylophones.A third one is on another table in between.

There is no date on this postcard but there is on the next.

A penciled message gives a date of 17 Oct 1920,while the postcard caption says this boy's name is Otto Stehle. He may be the missing brother for the third tableor he might be the same boy but in a younger photo.

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This next brother and sister Xylophon Virtuosen actare named Harry (?) and Vera Gläsner.They appear about ages 13 and 16.and are dressed in white tie and tails.Their xylophones rest on trapezoidal tablesthat look like they might double as folding cases for the instruments.There is no postmark, but the back does have an agent's address in Berlin.The style of photo postcard likely dates the Gläsner siblings to the 1920s.

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My last example of Xylophon Kinderis Rita Lenz, 8 years old.Her eyes were poorly retouched by the photographerwhich gives her a rather alarming look. Her short dress is a more conventional than folk styleand she wears high top white shoes that resemble ice or roller skating shoes.

Her postcard was sent to Berlin on 26 July 1921.

The Xylophon, also known under its folk name,the Strohfiedelor Straw Fiddlewas a favorite instrument by many young entertainers. There are still more to come in Xylophon Kinder part 3.

Meanwhile here's a delightful video of Josef Ost, 85 years young, performing Souvenir de Cirque Renz,aka Zirkus Renz, by Gustave Peter (1833 – 1919),a xylophone performer and composer remembered only for his one big hit.This is the music that I'm certain every Strohfiedel Kinder knew by heart.(click the full screen icon for a better view)

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And for an even more impressive virtuosohere is Xylophon soloist Bena Havluplaying an arrangement of the familiarCapriccio XXIV of Paganini.

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This is my contribution to Sepia Saturdaywhere some kids study while other play.

06 October 2017

Do you ever have one of those daysthat leaves you dumbfounded for words?

When terrible news hits you in the face with such force that you are stunned for something to say?There must be a word for that feeling.

Stupéfaction!~Stupefaction!

In 1904 affection, love, and maybe consolationled Germaine Perriolat to send a thousand caresses to Gaston Perriotlat, an electricianwho lived in Espelette, a commune in southwest Francein the department of the Basses-Pyrénées.

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Sometimes the bad news is enough to give you a stomachachetrying to understandthe reasons why.

Hermann Funke,das bergische Unikum~the Rarity from Bergisches Land (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany)knew what that felt like in 1908.

About This

This is a web gallery of antique photographs of musicians. Most are of people whose names are now lost in time but they represent the many kinds of players, instruments, and ensembles that once defined musical culture.But these photographs also capture a moment in the history of people and places, so I write about that too.

All the photos shown here are in my personal collection.

For Best EffectClick on the Imagesfor a Larger View

For information on my music for horn - go to the bottom of this column.